


I'll Teach You

by Listentothelittlebird



Series: Code Bat [22]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Chinese Culture, Fluff, Gen, Incredibly Self-Indulgent, let Cass express her asian roots!, this has been vibing in my drafts so might as well post it, translations will be in a comment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28340034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Listentothelittlebird/pseuds/Listentothelittlebird
Summary: Cass has finally moved back into Gotham.She brings pieces of the culture she had experienced back home - if there is something she can give her family, it's what she has learnt.(Featuring some Chinese phrases and some Chinese things. Enjoy!)
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Bruce Wayne, Cassandra Cain & Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain & Duke Thomas, Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake
Series: Code Bat [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964452
Comments: 31
Kudos: 401





	I'll Teach You

**Author's Note:**

> Cass lived in Hong Kong for a while. I want to believe she picked up some Cantonese and Mandarin there, and shared some of that with her family. This fic is just me projecting Chinese things onto Cass, basically.
> 
> I made the decision to write the Chinese characters in _han yu pin yin_. I also made the decision not to put the _yīn diào_ for each word, the weird little squiggle-line you can see there. This is because I switch between Cantonese and Mandarin, and I wanted to standardise.
> 
> This is completely self-indulgent, and I had fun showing this to my friends. I hope you enjoy reading! Translations will be put in a comment down below. (Sorry if you were expecting a reveal fic :P I just wanted to get this out first!)

Cass had loved living in Hong Kong - being exposed to a new culture, new just like how Gotham had been, all over again. She loved everything that she had learnt, both in terms of skills and in terms of understanding a culture she felt was hers to claim.

When it came down to it, though, her roots were in Gotham. She loved the time she had spent overseas, but she loved and missed her family even more, and she was excited to move back home.

She also loved that she could visit Batman - Batman, not just Bruce - more often. Particularly when his colleagues were present.

Black Bat breezed into the meeting room, thirty minutes after the meeting had ended, as stated by Oracle. Batman was still discussing something with Superman and Wonder Woman. She came to stand beside her father, and Bruce reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder.

She tugged lightly on his cape.

“Home,” Black Bat whispered, and she could see clear as day the smile that Superman was suppressing, “Let’s go.”

“Just a moment, _Mui Mui_ ,” Batman rumbled, and Black Bat smiled brightly at the affectionate name. It was meant to mean “younger sister”, but she had seen countless parents referring to their own children as “younger brother” or “younger sister”. It settled warmly in her chest - Bruce could choose any name, really, and the way that he would say it, tender as a prayer, would always mean something to Cass.

“ _Ba Ba_ ,” Black Bat whined, giggling slightly as she tugged again on the man’s cape. She gave him a few more moments before she tugged on his cape again, and he finally turned his cowl to face her. His face was bemused, but his arm curled around her shoulders, warm and inviting.

“ _Ba Ba, hui jia le,_ ” Black Bat pouted in Mandarin. Then, repeating in English, “Let’s go home, Dad.”

Batman sighed, unsuccessfully hiding the smile tugging at his lips. “I’ll continue this discussion on a later date,” Batman informed his colleagues, who were not even trying to hide their smiles. “Go on ahead,” Superman hummed, both heroes sending Black Bat a warm wave as the two Bats left the room.

“Did Agent A send you to get me?” Batman rumbled amusedly, as Black Bat curled herself into his cape. She was almost hidden, could be if she wanted to, but she left her head out so that she could lift her head and grin at her father. He grunted in resignation, steering them both towards the Watchtower teleporters.

~

“ _Ba Ba_ ,” Bruce heard, echoing from somewhere in the Manor. The living room, he suspected, given the tone was whiny in the way that meant Cass was messing around with her siblings, “ _Kor Kor_ bully me.”

Bruce made his way in the direction of the noise as he called out, “What did you do, Jay?”

“Nothing!” Jason yelled back, as Tim responded with, “He may have eaten one of Cass’ cookies.”

“Jaylad,” Bruce sighed, entering the room with an exasperated smile, “I know you could’ve made some for yourself, if you really did want more.”

Jason, sprawled on the couch on his phone, smiled sheepishly. “In my defense,” Jason drawled, “I thought those were Timmer’s cookies. I wouldn’t have taken from _Mui’s_ share, if I had known it was hers.” Duke made a disgruntled face, from where he was perched on the armrest. He was learning the habit from his siblings, it seemed.

Tim grumbled out a sound of vague offence, still typing something on his own phone. Texting Steph, if the range of facial expressions was anything to go by.

“Jason?” Cass hummed innocently.

“Hm?”

There was the collective buzz of notifications from all of their phones. Cass was holding hers, watching them, waiting for something.

Tim furrowed his brow, fingers pausing in their typing, before they widened comically. He let out a surprised wheeze of laughter, which quickly dissolved into earnest giggles. Jason had sat up on the couch, staring at Cass with a part-offended. part-scandalised expression, which Cass met with a cheerful grin. 

Duke smiled unsurely, his brow furrowed and obviously not completely comprehending what he was reading, but understanding enough to know it was vaguely amusing. 

Tim’s phone started ringing, and Steph’s voice filtered through.

“Okay, so who was that sticker for? It’s beautiful, Cass, by the way.”

“ _Kor Kor qi fu le wo,_ ” Cass explained, beaming, “And thanks!”

Bruce gave it a few more moments before he looked at the group chat himself. He snorted lightly at the sticker Cass had sent, and Cass’ eyes twinkled with mirth.

“ _Wo yi qiang_ biu _si ni_ ,” it read, with a cute cartoon character, face frowning angrily, holding a pointed gun to the side.

“Who is Cain threatening?” Damian questioned as he rounded the corridor, his expression openly confused, blinking confusedly at the scene before him. “Father?” he questioned, looking up at Bruce for guidance. Duke was grinning, now, catching up with the context.

“Jason stole Cass’ cookie,” Bruce explained, as Tim finally stopped laughing long enough to speak, barely.

“I-I just,” Tim giggled, flailing an arm at Cass, “You want to-” 

Tim made a finger gun and pointed it at Jason. He schooled his face to a stoic expression, long enough to say “biu”, completely seriously, tilting his finger gun to mimic recoil, before his face split into another grin as he dissolved back into another round of giggles.

“I’m never gonna live this down, am I?” Jason groaned, covering his face with his arm. He was hiding a smile.

~

“The correct term I should use is _Ze Ze_. Is that correct?”

Damian was standing stiffly at her door, hesitating, so she curled a hand over his and tugged him into her bedroom, pushing him onto her bed and crawling up beside him.

“Yep,” Cass confirmed, rolling over to meet Damian’s eye, “Cantonese. Elder sister.”

“Like how Todd is _Kor Kor_ ,” Damian pronounced carefully, staring at the ceiling, “And Grayson is _Dai Kor_.”

Cass hummed and waited until Damian had relaxed his tense shoulders before poking him in the chest. 

“ _Sai Lou_ ,” Cass grinned, “And Tim is _Dai Dai_ for me. But you call him _Saam Kor_ \- third elder brother. Duke is _Sei Kor_ for you, _Yi Dai_ for me.”

Damian’s brow furrowed. “Why is Drake _Dai Dai_?” he questioned, “Since Grayson is _Dai Kor_ , does _Dai_ not mean big?”

“Different words,” Cass explained, “Mandarin for _Dai Kor_ is _Da Ge_. _Dai Dai_ is _Di Di_.”

Damian huffed beside her. Then, tentatively, “I learnt only basic Mandarin in the League. I’d… be willing to learn more. From you.”

Cass wordlessly pulled her little brother into a hug.

~

“That means you’re _Mui Mui_ ,” Dick grinned, at Cass, then pointed to Jason, “And you’re _Yap Dai_ ,”

He pointed at Tim, “ _Yi Dai_ ,” he continued, gleefully, “Duke, you’re my _Saam Dai_ , and Dami's _Sai Lou_ , because you’re the littlest brother!” 

He ended with ruffling Damian’s hair. He squawked in offense, but made no move to remove the hand.

Cass beamed, as Dick waved a hand at Steph, next.

“ _Yi Mui_ ,” Dick tried, “Second little sister. Is that right?” 

He looked to Cass for confirmation, to which she nodded eagerly. Steph was making a particularly constipated expression as she tried to process the respective names of each member of the family.

“I’m sticking to Cass,” she stated, after a very long moment of confused frowning, “And, like, insults for the rest of you chumps. No offense, sis.”

“None taken,” Cass chirped, smiling softly.

~

“ _They’re all dumplings,_ ” Cass signed, because she defaulted to signing when she really wanted to emphasise a point. Her hands flailed over the different dishes she had bought from a Dim Sum restaurant, “ _That’s a dumpling, that’s a dumpling-_ ” she paused.

“This one’s a _bao_ ,” she spoke aloud, pointing at a char siew bao, the meat filling peeking out from the bun’s half-torn top, “Steamed bun. But you called it a dumpling.”

“Does _bao_ not mean dumpling?” Tim frowned, “Like _xiao long bao_?”

Cass stopped to consider. “Yes,” she agreed, “ _Xiao long bao_ is a dumpling. But this,” she picked up another dish, a fried bun, golden-brown and still warm, “Is another _bao_. But they’re also called _mantou_ , so, maybe different?”

Tim made a constipated face similar to Steph’s, and Cass giggled.

~

“It’s really hot,” Tim whined, tugging at his shirt uncomfortably, “Why couldn’t we have gone later in the day?” 

They were in a foreign country, and Cass had finally dragged Tim out of his business meetings for some time around the town.

“Can’t see,” Cass stated vaguely, giving a wink at Tim’s confusion.

She led him to a Chinese temple, one that tourists regularly went in and out of. One that still functioned as a temple, regardless of the disturbances. The air smelt of burning joss-sticks, the temple itself quiet compared to the bustling street outside.

Tim was striding carefully, Cass could tell, from the way he made sure to step over the wooden thresholds of the doorways and padded carefully over the stone floor. He would stop at certain positions, angle his camera and snap a few photos of the architecture, the dragon engravings and the other numerous animal designs around him, and continue on. 

He paused for a moment longer at the bats sculpted into the archway, and Cass smiled into her hand.

They wandered for a while longer, before Cass paused them both at the centre of the temple, took Tim’s head between her two palms, and tilted his gaze upwards. He did not gape, per se, but his jaw did slacken.

“Are those- are those bats?” Tim whispered, an excited grin spreading across his face. He snapped a few photos and turned to meet Cass’ gaze, mirth shining clearly in his eyes.

“Bats are a good sign to the Chinese,” Cass explained his unasked question, as they both turned their gazes back to the bats hanging from the wooden beams of the temple, sleeping peacefully, their wings folded around their small forms. “ _Bian fu_ , bat, sounds like _fu_ , blessing. So they mean good fortune.”

“And they just let the bats live up there?”

Cass hummed a confirmation, smiling to match Tim as their silent amusement passed between them.

~

Duke was dragged along for this particular trip overseas, too, to “take a break from Gotham”, as Bruce had described. Cass made it her job to make sure he came out of his hotel room.

“Where are we going?” Duke asked curiously, following blindly after Cass. Cass smiled and pointed to a large tropical tree at the edge of a field, in the middle of the neighbourhood they had been wandering. “Nice spot to rest,” Cass explained, and Duke agreed.

They sat staring up at the tree, and not even the dimming light could encourage them to move. The night was their playground, after all.

Duke sat up abruptly, something like awe crossing his face. Cass followed his gaze, and she noticed the movements before long. The swift curving path of silent wings, wings that caught the glaring dusk sunlight as they whizzed past in blurs.

“Bats,” Duke murmured, and they sat there and stared as the fruit bats came out of hiding, one by one, diving and rising and encircling the fruit tree, pausing only to snatch fruit off its branches. They chittered quietly, the sounds of squealing children returning home giving way to the sounds of nature waking up.

They sat there for a long time, just watching the dips and twists of the bats’ flights, the way the bats danced about each other like swifts in the sky, assured and confident in a pattern they had practiced together. 

They sat until it was too dark to make out their shapes properly, before they finally began the trek back to their hotel.

There was a chirp from both of their phones.

_Are u two good out there? Didn’t get lost, did you?_

Cass smiled at the text, and replied with a picture she had taken of the bats mid-flight.

_Bat-watching. They’re just like us._

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus:
> 
> Black Bat, on a slow night, found Catwoman just to show her “学猫叫”, or, “Learn to Meow”, the music video. Somewhere in Oracle’s database is a video of both people doing the dance.
> 
> Thank you for reading! I left translations in a comment below :))
> 
> Was this fic hard to follow?


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